A typical jaw crusher includes a stationary jaw and a moveable jaw which are spaced apart to define a crushing chamber there between. Aggregate material is fed into the crushing chamber and is crushed by cooperating surfaces on each of the jaws as the moveable jaw repeatedly reciprocates toward and away from the stationary jaw in a well known fashion.
The size of the aggregate produced by the jaw crusher is largely determined by the closed side setting, which essentially is the distance between the lower-most edge of the jaws. Relatively large pieces of aggregate are fed into the top of the crushing chamber, and the material is gradually crushed by the reciprocating jaws as the material falls lower and lower into the crushing chamber. Once the material has reached the desired size (i.e., smaller than the closed side setting), the material falls out of the crushing chamber and is carried away in a conventional manner.
Occasionally, however, the aggregate material being fed into the crushing chamber will include uncrushable material, commonly referred to as “tramp iron.” As is known, tramp iron hinders or stops the crushing operation, and in some circumstances the tramp iron causes serious damage to one or more components of the jaw crusher.
Tramp iron relief systems have been developed in order to address this problem. From an operational standpoint, existing tramp iron relief systems suffer from one or more drawbacks. Thus, there is a continuing need for improvements in tramp iron relief systems for jaw crushers.